Sticky Situations

It's been a busy couple of weeks what with Tim being away so I hadn't thought about this blog until yesterday – when a nice man (or probably a nice computer that generates messages) told me that we were one of the Top 100 Fundraising Blogs. They even gave us a little medal made out of HTML.

Top 100 Blogs

It saddened me for a moment that, in the unlikely event of someone looking up the Top 100 Fundraising Blogs and clicking through to us, they would actually see a catalogue of our puerile adventures with a non-erasing whiteboard. So I vowed that I would write something useful about fundraising forthwith.

Sadly, at that point, I got a call from one of our clients to tell me that someone very famous and well-loved was prepared to front their Christmas Appeal – provided they could see copy soon. Like tomorrow.

So between six and ten o'clock last night I wrote a Christmas appeal. I hammered together the charity's best case study and most motivating proposition in the manner of the celeb in question. And do you know what? It was pretty good.

So there's some useful advice. If procrastination or confusion troubles you, set yourself a stupid deadline and just bash it out. You probably know what's needed – you're just thinking too hard.

Anyway, having got that out of the way, I can proceed to what I was going to write about in the first place. It's a book called Made to Stick that was recommended to me by Michael Newsome at Action for Children. It's all about why some stories 'go viral' while most of what we produce is forgotten before people even finish reading it.

Like all the best American business books, it has a handy and desperately corny mnemonic to help you remember its wisdom. So for all of you out there who can't be bothered to read it, click on the image at the top for a handy summary. Try it. It really works.

James

Whiteboard Paint. Another Warning.

Having scrubbed off your childish drawing with a brillo pad, make sure you check the effect of shining a projector onto the cleaned area BEFORE any client presentations.

Whiteboard Paint. A Warning

Two hard-learned pieces of advice for you all.

1. This product is rubbish. It doesn't work. Don't buy or use it.


2. If you choose to ignore point 1 and paint an entire wall of your office with it, don't draw a five-foot version of the first childish & stupid thing that comes into your head to 'test' it.

Feeling rather proud today...

Last September we set up Open to 'bring the right people together to change the world'.

Earlier this year we met with the lovely people at the Domino Recording Company. Shortly afterwards, we met with them again and brought our friends from Oxfam along with us.

On August 17th, The Arctic Monkeys will release their new single 'Crying Lightning' exclusively through independent record stores and one national retailer. I think you can guess who...

It's a fantastic idea and a fantastic story. It brings together art, charity, the state of our high streets, recession, you name it. It's going to be big.

Was this our brainchild?
No. It actually came from Domino while we were throwing ideas around in our first meeting.

Did we do all the work?
No. We walked away as soon as the deal was in place.

Did we bring the right people together to change the world?
We like to think so.